As The World Turns Discussion Thread

[Khan]

I know it's been said here that HBS was actually in talks to return when OLTL came calling with the role of Nora.  I, for one, think HBS probably would've been treated as shabbily by TPTB in ATWT's latter years as she was by OLTL after a certain point.

[DRW50]

I agree, although I think HBS would have avoided making Margo as cold and shrewish as Dolan did in later years...although I do think Dolan worked better with Scott Holmes.

[Vee]

Hillary made the right choice by a country mile.

[DRW50]

I do wonder as they only wrote well for Nora for a few years and then it got to the point where she asked to be killed off, then was put into a coma for ages and nearly written out for good, and OLTL only ran about a year longer than ATWT (plus the reboot).

Still, Nora gave her a fresh character to play, and she gets to pop up on GH every once in a while. And she didn't have to work for Chris Goutman.

[Vee]

That was about 6-7 years later. And it did pass, and she ended up getting much better treatment creatively before the end. I think even in the worst of times Nora fared far better than Margo Hughes in the '90s and onward. Margo became a dour afterthought; except for a grim period in the Higley era, Nora was never really that.

Edited August 18, 2024 by Vee

[DRW50]

You're right, but I put a lot of that on Dolan. 

I can't really say HBS made the wrong choice though. She won an Emmy when they still mattered and had a steady job for another 20 years.

In 1996, the show seemed to start a story where Nancy was going to get ripped off by someone - a dance studio or carnival, I don't know. I was barely watching at the time. I mainly just remember because of a few soap articles (and SPW decrying a credits crawl ending in Nancy wearing a clown nose [which is very mild in heresies compared to where ATWT would soon be]). 

Black and Decker did try to give many of the vets some semblance of story (probably the last writers who did). They just weren't any good.

Edited August 18, 2024 by DRW50

[Mona Kane Croft]

I have a vague memory of this.  If my memory is correct, this took place when Chris Hughes was first sorased to a young adult.  Chris befriended a young hoodlum from a carnival who decided to take advantage of Nancy by stealing some jewelry or something.  The hoodlum broke into Nancy's garage apartment (the real garage with a garage-door in the background).  Previously, I had assumed Nancy's garage apartment was on the second floor, above the garage.  WRONG was I.  LOL.   Nancy actually lived in the garage.  Seriously.

But I digress...

So one night the hoodlum breaks into Nancy's garage apartment and sort of roughs her up.  Chris hears noises outside and comes to Nancy's rescue, only to find that his friend has beat on his grandmother.  That's about all I remember of this plot.  But I don't remember anything about Nancy wearing a clown-nose.   OMG!!      

[DRW50]

Thanks. I wasn't watching closely for most of these years. That might be another plot as Chris was still a kid/early teen up to early 1998.

[Vee]

Obviously I know such apartments exist, but I'll admit I never quite understood the whole garage situation with the grandparents. I just imagine them driving the family Buick into Nancy one night while she's sleeping.

[DRW50]

That was a perfect scene, especially the end where after he lets her go on about being with Bob and planning to marry him, he tells her he already knew thanks to Dusty. This moment, and the scene with Margo and Dusty, is what I miss most in the Marland era - these authentic conversations rather than the more formal, strained sense.

[NothinButAttitude]

Agreed. But we can thank Susan Bedsow Horgan for these scenes as she's credited as head writer at this time. Did she take a lesser role when Marland came on or was she phased out? 

If the latter, the show should've kept her and made her co-head writer. From what I've seen of SBH at ATWT, she thrived in the family aspect of the show which also defined Marland's ATWT. 

I am screaming at this comment. 

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I need to go and seek this clip out b/c maybe it is just me but from watching the Marland years, it always seemed suggested that it was a 2-story garage with the apartment on top. 

I always envisioned Kim's house being a huge sprawling manor that had enough room for Nancy/Chris to stay in the main house. I get Chris and Nancy wanted their independence but no. It would've been better if they just said Kim had a guest house and they stayed in that. 

[DRW50]

She just has some sporadic IMDB credits as a scriptwriter after Marland comes in - the last I see is Craig and Sierra's wedding.

[NothinButAttitude]

That makes sense as Sierra was her creation and that pairing was her idea, right? 

[Paul Raven]

It was 1966. Nancy was in hospital for the hysterectomy when she met Sara Fuller (Gloria De Haven) who was her room mate. They became friends and Nancy went to work at her dress shop.

Nancy & Chris had major problems when Chris defended Amanda Holmes for the death of her friend  Sara.

There was a photo posted (can't locate it) of Nancy back home in a dressing gown surrounded by family and get well  cards decorating the Hughes living room.

Of course, this could be another story from history that is incorrect. Until actual scripts turn up we'll never be sure.

[Mona Kane Croft]

You are right, it was always suggested that Nancy's apartment was on the second floor above the garage.  That is, until this scene.  When we finally saw Nancy in her apartment, someone forgot about the second floor detail and had her living literally in the garage -- not above the garage. I was rather shocked, actually.  I think this same set was used a couple of years later during a Valentine's Day episode in which Nancy reminisces about her first husband, Chris.  I remember she had furniture (perhaps her bed) pushed up against the large garage door.  It was very obvious. 

The next time we saw Nancy's apartment was just after her death, when some of the family was clearing out her possessions.  But they used a completely different set this time, and at that point it appeared her apartment was above the garage, no longer in the garage.  Thankfully.